Ray Ventura
Biography: Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel. Ventura was born to a Jewish family. In 1925 he was the pianist for the Collegiate Five, which recorded as the Collegians for Columbia beginning in 1928 and for Decca in the 1930s. A year later he led the band, and it became a dance orchestra resembling a big band. His sidemen included Alix Combelle, Philippe Brun, and Guy Paquinet. In the early 1940s he led a big band in South America and in France during the rest of the decade. One of his band's popular songs from 1936 was "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise" in which the Marquise is told by her servants that everything is fine at home except for a series of escalating calamities. It was seen as a metaphor for France's obliviousness to the approaching war. Source: Article "Ray Ventura" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: April 16, 1908
Deathday: March 29, 1979
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Known For
Everything is Going Very Well Madame la Marquise
1936-12-03
Everything is Going Very Well Madame la Marquise
Overview: After he loses a servant job when his employer's mansion burns down, a yokel makes money entertaining tourists in Breton garb, lands up appearing in a Paris show ,and meets another property owning lady, this one of dubious reputation.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1936-12-03
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Adventure in Paris
1936-11-24
Adventure in Paris
Overview: Michel Levasseur is a joyous reveler who does not care about the next day. So much so that one day a bailiff bursts into his Paris apartment and seizes his furniture on behalf of Raymond Sauvaget, his landlord, a rich food industrialist. But far from resenting Sauvaget's act of hostility, Michel ... becomes his friend. Now Raymond, although prosperous, does not know how to handle women. That is why he asks Michel, a regular Casanova, to give him lessons in seduction.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1936-11-24
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We Will All Go to Paris
1950-02-08
We Will All Go to Paris
Overview: The film tells the story of three presenters on Radio X, an amateur clandestine radio station.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1950-02-08
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One Hundred Francs Per Second
1953-01-09
One Hundred Francs Per Second
Overview: Philippe, an employee at the Bourdinet firm, having been caught kissing Jacqueline, his boss's daughter, is fired. Some time later, Bourdinet launches a radio quiz show to boost his business. Philippe then decides to compete in the hope of telling the thousands of listeners what he thinks of the industrialist. A blow on the head having given him a gift of second sight, the competitor becomes impeccable and wins astronomical sums to the great despair of Bourdinet. Everything will work out in the end and Philippe will be able to marry Jacqueline.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1953-01-09
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Whirlwind of Paris
1939-12-15
Whirlwind of Paris
Overview: A gang of broke student musicians travel to Paris to take exams. But very quickly, the lack of money pushes young people to pass themselves off as professionals during the performance. They will then win the victory!
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1939-12-15
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L'assassin connaît la musique
1963-10-16
L'assassin connaît la musique
Overview: Lionel Fribourg, a great composer (at least that's what he thinks) has a problem with his noisy environment: he can't complete his unfinished symphony. Of course there is a market for unfinished symphonies but, for all he knows, only one became famous. So he had better find a way to finish it. At long last, he comes across Agnès, a divorced woman who agrees to let him her quiet home. Lionel, full of hope, resumes work...
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1963-10-16
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Femmes de Paris
1953-05-17
Femmes de Paris
Overview: Professor Charles Buisson, astronomer and Nobel Prize winner, has just discovered a nova. He informs the other observatories by telephone. Just as he thinks one of them is calling back, he finds himself on the line with a young woman threatening suicide at the Ruban Bleu cabaret, if her lover hasn't joined her by midnight. Intrigued, the professor decides to go and prevent the unfortunate woman from committing suicide. One of his students, who earns her living as an understudy in a knife act, helps him in his investigation, while the school principal and a policeman suspect him of being a prankster or even of selling drugs. For the scientist, it's an opportunity to discover a world of music-hall that he'd never known before: "I thought I knew the sky chart by heart, but there's one planet that was totally unknown to me: Earth. I'll be back!
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1953-05-17
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Monte Carlo Baby
1951-11-22
Monte Carlo Baby
Overview: When a measles epidemic forces the temporary closing of a child care center, the son of a film star and her estranged husband, a concert pianist, is mistakenly delivered to a touring musician.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1951-11-22
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Mademoiselle Has Fun
1948-01-30
Mademoiselle Has Fun
Overview: Christine, the daughter of a rich American, acquires from her father the jazz band of Ray Ventura who will be made responsible for accompanying her from morning till evening wherever she goes. From an endless number of amusing situations, the fiancée of the girl despairs. But soon the musicians rebel in in the face of the requirements of their patroness. More than a job, it is for them misery. Christine excuses them and she goes back to America with her band. Things go bad, degenerate, but the kindness of the musicians and the firmness of the fiancée of Christine really quiet down the moods of the young woman .
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1948-01-30
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Feux de joie
1939-02-01
Feux de joie
Overview: Once their military service is over, the instrumentalists of a regimental orchestra find themselves in civilian life and decide to run a hotel themselves on the Côte d'Azur.
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1939-02-01
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Quadrille
1938-01-29
Quadrille
Overview: The battle of the sexes as drawing room social satire. Philippe, a middle-aged newspaper editor, has lived for six years with Paulette, a successful stage actress. He tells her friend Claudine, a realistic and enterprising reporter, that he's thinking of proposing. Into the mix steps Carl Erickson, a charming Hollywood matinée idol in Paris briefly. He meets Paulette, sees her act (his box seat compliments of Philippe), and sets out to seduce her. The next two days bring talk, tears, separation, despair, surprises, and, perhaps, reconciliation as characters speak "exactly half the truth." It's a quadrille of changing partners.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1938-01-29
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